Automatic railway-switch.



A. J. GURNEY. AUTOMATIC RAILWAY SWITCH. APPLICATION FILED OCT.27. I913- 1,147,319, Patented July 20, 1915.

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A. J. GURNEY.

AUTOMATIC RAILWAY SWITCH.-

APPLICATION FILED ocT.21. 1913.

1,147,319. Patented July 20,1915.

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COLUMBIA PLANOORAPH C0.- WASHINGTON, D. C.

ALBERT J. GURNEY, or HEREIN, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC RAILWAY-SWITCH.

Application filed October 27,

a resident of Herrin, in the county of Williamson and State of Illinois, have invented certain, new and useful Improvements in I 7 Automatic Railway-Switches, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

, My invention relates to an automatic switch in which provision is made for the maintenance of the switch in. a normal closed condition, the opening of the switch through the medium of a device carried by a-locomotive or car, when it is desired to sidetrack it to a side line, and the restoration of the switch to normal closed condition through the medium of said operating device.

Figure I is a top or plan view of a section of railroad track, including my automatic switch, the switch being shown closed. Fig. II is an enlarged side elevation of a fragment of one of the switch or siding rails shown in Fig. I, an operating device suitable for use in actuating my switch, and a modified form of restoring trigger. Fig. III is an enlarged top or plan view of my switch opening mechanism, the parts being shown in the positions assumed when the switch is open. Fig. IVis a longitudinal section taken on line IVIV, Fig. III.

, In the drawings: A A designate the rails of a main line of railroad track and B B are the side line rails.

C C are the switch points pivoted at c cto the frog D, theswitch point C being movable to and from the main line rail A, andthe switch point C being movable to and from the main line rail A. Said switch points are united by a tie rod E.

The parts thus far described are common to railway switches in general, and no invention per se is herein claimed therefor.

My switch is maintained normally in a closed condition; or, other words, with the switch point C at the side of the main line at which the side line rails are located and in contact with the main line rail A at such side. To provide for the switch being held closed, I furnish the switch point C Specification of Letters Patent.

throwing member is desired.

, j PatentedJuly 2c, 1915.

1913. Serial No. 797,479.

with a draw rod 1,which extends through the adjacent track rail, and on which is mounted a retracting spring 2, which-tends to draw the switchpoint CV to the rail A.

Alongside the main line. rail A, near the junction of the rail 13 therewith, is a pair ofguides 3 and 4:, between which is a. runway .5, extending parallel with the main line rails. The guides 3and 1 are preferably of greater height than the adjacent track rail, as seen in Fig. IV, ,andthe runway 5.;receives a traveler ,6 carried by a locomotive,

a tender, or a car which is operated along the main line rails A A and is to be sidetracked to the side linerails B B. This traveler maybe of any suitable construction. As shown in F ig.iII, it is in the form of a dog pivotally mounted at 7, and having an arm 8 to which a lift chain 9 is attached. Such dog may be normally held in elevated position through the medium of the chain .9, and dropped ,to the operative-position seen in Fig; II, when its service as a 'switch I will next proceed to the the mechanism through the medium ,of which the switch is opened. The primary element of this mechanism is a horizontally movable toggle, comprising two bars 101 and 12, the bar 10 being conne'ctedto the guide 4: by a vertical pivot pin 11 at apoint Y near the entrance end. of the runway 5.

The toggle bars .aredjoined bya vertical description. of

pivot pin 13, the said pivot pin 13 being so disposed as to provide forthe toggle being thrown acrossthe runway 5 when broken, asseen inFig. I, and being retracted from said runway when the toggle is unbroken, as

it are slightly past alinement with each other, and the toggle is locked against acciseen in Fig. III. When the toggle is inthe dental movement. The rear toggle'bar 12 has its rear. end pivotally connected, at 14;, to one arm 15 of a bell crank throw lever,

other arm 17 of said throw lever is pivoted at 18 to a thrust rod 19 connected by suitable means to the tie rod E, the connection be-.

which is pivoted at 16 to the guide The i tween the thrust rod and the, tie rod being,

preferably of an adjustable form, such as that" shown in Fig. III. When-a traveler,

such, for example, as that illustrated in.

Fig. 11, passes into the runway 5 between the guides 3 and 4 during the movement of a car or train toward the switch, the traveler first rides into contact with the toggle bar 10, this bar being preferably provided with an incline, as shown in the drawings. As the traveler continues its movement through said runway, it acts to straighten out the toggle which is normally broken across the runway, until the toggle has assumed the unbroken condition illustrated in Fig. III. The operation of the toggle, as explained, results in the toggle bar 12 imparting a rearward movement to the arm 15 of the bell crank throwlever whereby the second arm 17 of said throw lever is actuated to impart such movement to the thrust rod 18 as to cause the latter to open the switch. The toggle having been moved so that the pivot of the joint between its bars is slightly beyond a dead center, the toggle assumes a locked condition which is maintained for the time being with the result of the switch being kept open.

I next come to a description of the restoring mechanism which is operable to return the switch throwing mechanism to normal condition, thereby permitting closing the switch through the medium of the retracting spring 2. This restoring mechanism is shown in Figs. 1, III and'lV, and it comprises in part a pull rod 20 which extends from a point adjacent to the guide 4 along and parallel with the side line rail 13, the said pull rod being connected to a horizontally movable lever arm 21 pivoted to the guide 4 at 22. The lever arm 21 is located back of the toggle bar 10 and it is provided with a throw arm 23, which is operable against said toggle bar for the purpose of breaking the toggle so that it will move from the position shown in Fig. 111 to that shown in Fig. I. Adjacent to the side line rail B is a pair of guides 24 and 25, between which is a runway 26. 27 is a horizontally movable trigger, the forward end of which is connected to the guide 24'by a vertical pivot pin 28, this trigger being movable from a position in which it spans the runway 26 to a position in which it lies in line with the guide 24. The trigger is joined to the pull rod 20 by a connection 29 which is attached to the pull rod at a point between said trigger and the forward end of the rod. lVhen the switch is opened in the manner previously explained, the lever arm 21 is operated by the engagement of the toggle bar 10 with the'throw arm 23, and, as a consequence, the pull rod 20 is drawn forwardly, whereby the trigger 27 is drawn across the runway 26 between the guides 24 and 25. Consequently, when-the traveler 6 passes through said runway 26, itrides against the trigger 27 and, by throwing said trigger laterally, causes the trigger to exert a pull upon the pull rod 20, whereby the toggle comprising the bars 10 and 12 is broken, and the switch is permitted to return to a closed position under the action of the retracting spring 2. It is desirable to restore the switch to a closed condition as early as possible after a car or train has passed onto the side line and, therefore, the switch restoring mechanism, including the trigger 27, should be located as close as possible to the main line. Inasmuch, however, as it is also desirable to provide for the passage of long trains onto the side line before restoring the switch, I provide an auxiliary trigger 27 located more remote from the main track than the trigger 27, the connecting rod 20 being extended to a point adjacent to said auxiliary trigger, and a connection 29 being located between said rod and auxiliary trigger. The auxiliary trigger is associated with guides 24' and 25 between which isa runway 26' adapted to be spanned by the auxiliary Y trigger. When the auxiliary restoring device is to be utilized, the traveler 6 is elevated so as to pass the trigger 27 without operating it and is lowered to provide for its engagement with the auxiliary trigger.

Fig. II illustrates a modification including a switch restoring trigger 27 which is movable vertically instead of horizontally. This trigger 27 is pivotally supported at 28*. 29 designates a pull chain connected to the trigger 27 said pull chain being similar to the element 29 shown in Fig. I. When the traveler 6 passes over the trigger 27, the latter is depressed from the position shown in dotted lines (Fig. H) to the position shown in full lines, thereby pulling the chain 29 to restore the toggle as previously described.

I claim V 1. The combination in an automatic railwvay switch, of switch points, means tending to maintain said switch points in posi tions to close the switch, switch point operating mechanism including a horizontally movable toggle adapted to be engaged by a traveler carried by a railway vehicle, a traveler guiding member adjacent to horizontally movable toggle, and means operable by said traveler for restoring said toggle to normal position to permit the closing of the switch.

2. The combination in an automatic railway switch, of switch points, means tending to maintain said switch points in positions to close the switch, switch point operating mechanism including a horizontally movable toggle adapted to be engaged by a traveler carried by a'railway vehicle, a horizontal traveler guiding member adjacent to said horizontally movable toggle, a

toggle restoring member, and means connected to said toggle restoring member operable by said traveler whereby the toggle reagainst said toggle, and a trigger having storing member is actuated to restore the connection with said toggle restoring arm, toggle to its normal position. the said trigger being operable by said 3. The combination in an automatic railtraveler to actuate said traveler restoring 5 way switch, of switch points, means tendarm, and cause it to restore said toggle to 15 ing to maintain said switch points in posiits normal position. tions to close the switch, a horizontally mov- ALBERT J. GURNEY. able switch point operating toggle operable In the presence of y by a traveler carried by a railway vehicle, E. K. CLARK,

.0 a toggle restoring arm adapted to press E. B. LINN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

